What it means to “use social media” for your website

You hear it constantly!

“You need to be on social media for your business.”

“Are you blogging?”

It’s a lot simpler than it sounds. It can get complex, and it can grow into something that completely drives your business or your website. But at it’s core, it’s pretty straight forward. Here’s the 5 minute explanation that nobody seems to want to reveal.

Using social media and blogs (which are a form of social media) are a way of driving people to your business or website. It’s that simple. Think of it like the postcards and other mailers you receive in your mail every day. Local realtors, gardeners, stores & small businesses send these things out constantly. Now, you’re not going to decide that you want to buy a house because you get an ad from a realtor, but when the time comes that you do want to buy a house, the first person that comes to mind to help you will be the realtor that you get all of those mailers from. And when you go to look for their information — there it is! In today’s mail again!

That’s what social media and blogging is all about. It’s a way for you to continuously put information and content out to people so that when the time comes that they need a service or product you can fill, you’re where they naturally turn.

So how do all the pieces fit together?

Ultimately, you’re trying to keep people going to your website and keep your name on the top of their mind. You have to sort of work backwards here. Let’s start with a Facebook post or Tweet (Twitter.)

A business posts on Facebook: “Did you know you lose almost 100% of the value of installing a pool in your yard? But new windows keep almost all their value? Check out this post to read more about where your hard earned money is best spent on your home!”

You click on it, and it’s a link to a blog post on that person’s website talking about exactly what you expected. It’s not an advertisement or anything. Just good quality information that people want to read.

Why do they do this? It’s to build a ‘readership’. They want to create content (blog posts, Facebook & Twitter posts, etc.) that people want to read. And they want to do it consistently. If you pick up a magazine from a store a couple of times and love it every time, there’s a good chance you’re going to subscribe. Same idea here. If someone likes the content you’re producing over and over, they will become regular readers of your blog and possibly even subscribe to it (yes, that’s a thing!)

So now what do you have? You have a bunch of people constantly reading your blog, and very possibly, visiting your website to do that. 2 things come out of this:

People coming to your website is a good thing. It helps your search engine rankings, and it means that people are already only a click away from using your service. The hardest part about getting someone to take action from your website is just getting them there. Nobody goes to the store just to buy a candy bar. But once they’re there, the candy bars fly off the shelves!

Your blog posts will promote you. They are not (and should not be) ads for you. They are just useful content. Don’t get it? Well, you’re reading this blog post. I’m not promoting our company in any way. But what I am demonstrating is that we have an understanding of how this whole internet thing works. If you like what you’re reading here, and keep reading, you’ll come to realize that we know what we’re talking about and can help you with any website needs you might have in the future.

And that’s how it all works.

You want people to buy your product or service.

To do that, they need to visit your website & trust you. To get people to your site, you need them to have a reason to go there. To get them to trust you, you have to demonstrate your knowledge and integrity. Blog posts do these things.

To find your blog posts, you need to get people to read them. Facebook and other social media ‘teaser’ posts can get them to do this.

For those teaser posts to reach anyone, you need to have an audience on these social media sites.

To get that audience, you need to invite people to watch or ‘like’ your page so they see your posts.

But first, you need to actually setup the pages for these sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

So to get #1 above to start happening more, start with #6 an work your way up!

How do you use social media? What tips can you share in your experience?